Day 4 of Iceland trip - decided to try the Laugavegur Trek

Through the night I took pain meds, but saved the codeine pill from the hospital for an emergency. In the morning my fever broke and I decided to try it, given I had an out and the first day was less than 10 miles. The hike, although rated harder than the Inca Trail, didn't look like it was harder and it wasn't at the high altitude. I wasn't feeling too bad, so packed up everything, put 2 suitcases in storage at the Borg Hotel, and walked the 2 blocks over to Bus Stop 1. There I met Robyn and several others from the group while we waited for the truck. Arctic Adventures was about 45 minutes late and I was starting to have a serious sense of humor failure - seems they reversed pickup stop order without telling any of the customers. Turns out Carin Parker broker her wrist about 2 seeks ago and was coming on the hike too - she's going into surgery as soon as she gets back to the States. We got to the bus terminal and others put their baggage into storage at Arctic Adventures and we boarded a big city bus transformed to be able to take the harsher unpaved roads and able to drive through rivers. Along the drive to the National Park we passed a lot of Icelandic horses, some of which had just given birth. They are beautiful ponies which lovely colors, different than you'd see in "Western" horses - e.g. a black pony with blond mane/tail. We got to the start of the Park and the paved road stopped. We started seeing snow capped mountains and crossed several rivers. I thought we'd see a lot more volume of tourists in transformed 4X4s, but there were not many tourists (thank goodness). We finally got to Landmannalaugar which is the start of the trail. Again, I expected to see a very crowded space and was happy to see it wasn't. The hut was small, but we had enough room. There was a shower area nearby. There was also a natural hot spring which I opted for over the shower. Strangely, I meet the man and woman (a Norwegian man and Colombian lady) who were with me when I sprained my ankle in the hot spring - very small island:)

We got situated and met the others in our group of 15 plus Gully, our guide. On the tour were: Jackie & Patrick (work at Google), Robyn Bouchard, Clay Parker & Carin Parker (brother/sister), Elys, Gail Johnston, David Burke, Daisy, MJ, Julie, Linda & Greg (married) and their son. The surprise of the day is when Gully informs us the itinerary has changed. Today we will go on a local hike (the start of the trail for tomorrow), and tomorrow we combine days 1 & 2 for a total of 15 miles through the hardest part of the hike. Needless to say I am not amused, nor is Carin. I probably wouldn't have come had I known this, but feel compelled to try it. Gully wasn't told that there were two injured people on the trip. Another bit of a surprise is that we will all be expected to help in cooking and clean up each day. I would have paid extra for a trip where I wouldn't have to do this.

I am able to keep up with the local hike, but am last. There are some midges, but I use my head net, so that's nice. Along the route we meet another guide who decides to hug each of us - kind of weird. The area is interesting to look at for about 15 minutes - very volcanic with some interesting formations.